Defrag hybrid drive?

My new machine has a hybrid drive: 500 gig platter with 32-gig solid state. It puts frequently-used files, such as those used at startup on the solid state part. (It boots up very quickly!) Do I need to defrag it? Will I harm it if I try to defrag it?

You don't need to defrag the solid state part. If you can defrag the mechanical part separately from the solid state part, then yes, it can help.

The only harm in defragging the solid state part is that you are putting wear and tear on it. This is a concern for solid state drives, because they wear out quicker than mechanical drives.

Also, on the solid state part, the files are continually refreshed, based on what the system thinks the computer will be looking for. Therefore, it's nothing more than a super-buffer. I wouldn't defrag it.

In fact, if you defrag your drive, my guess (and it's only a guess) is that the solid state part won't be defragged, because it's only a buffer; it's technically not a drive.

from what I read on the Seagate website, you do not want to defragment that drive.

It watches what you access and copies that data to the solid state area.

As the previous poster stated, the solid state area is basically a massive buffer. You will almost definitely cause wear on that area, and may even trigger the drive to flush that data entirely and start all over again optimizing.

The only page I could find with information that may or not actually be relevant is:

#1
Turn off Windows automatic defrag. Like SSDs, Momentus XT works best without frequent defrag.

emphasis placed by me

In the very least, do not follow the tried and true advice about defragmenting it often. It has special circuitry to attempt to compensate for slow access times. I would personally wait until the vendor (Seagate) releases a list of compatible defragmentation software.